--Original published at Jill Distler's Psychology Blog

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I chose to take Psychology 105 at Elizabethtown College, because I heard so many great things about the professor for my section. Not only am I excited to learn more about the human brain, I am also excited to learn more about conditioning. Although I do not have any previous experience in a psychology class, a history teacher I had in high school taught the course and had “rat labs” where students were training rats. What do you think of when you hear the word “psychology”? For starters, I usually think of the brain and behaviors that are associated with disorders. Then I think of the “rat lab” when someone brought their rat to the bathroom and it escaped, leaving many of the teachers hiding from the small, large eared rodent. This semester, I am thrilled to learn about memories, the mechanics of sleep, and the topics in Week 16. These topics are most interesting to me because I personally have a terrible memory, specifically when it comes to remembering traumatic events. I also believe I could be an insomniac so sleep cycles, and the activity of the brain during sleep. I am also interested in psychotic, traumatic, and personality disorders along with the treatments for the conditions. I am least interested in the topics surrounding the technical side of psychology such as: the scientific methods, the importance of research design, and the power of experiments. Since the class does not have a lab, I don’t think reviewing these topics is entirely relevant to the course, even though it is important outside of the classroom. By the end of this semester, I hope to answer my questions about how I can help myself get “a good night’s rest” and also why the human brain forgets traumatic incidents.

January 14th, 2019